The Fizzle Show

http://fizzleshow.co/111 - In this episode we're joined by a very special guest: the new Director of Member Success here at Fizzle, Steph Crowder. In Steph's inaugural episode we explore the experience and perspectives of women in startups and lifestyle businesses. - Is there discrimination against women in the indie business world? - What has Steph's experience been like? - What steps can all of us take right now to discover where gender bias is limiting our content strategies? - Plus a crap ton more. I mean it, we discuss a lot more, and Steph is *so* awesome. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/110 This is second and final episode in our series about how to make an engaging course on the cheap. You don't need a bunch of equipment, you need a solid plan. This list walks you through that plan. In this episode we continue walking through 38 tips to help you make something excellent your first time around. (If you haven't listened to it yet, here's part 1 of this conversation.) Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/109 At the time of writing, Fizzle has over 400 lessons in 31 courses. That's over 10 courses a year for the past 2.5 years. I've always loved teaching ideas that excite me. And, after the past few years here, we've made a business out of creating courses that change people's lives. In this 2 part conversation we share over 30 tips to help you make *engaging* courses you can sell yourself, covering topics like: - How to develop a course topic that will sell itself instead of burn you out. - What apps and software should you use? - When should you host it yourself (on WordPress or something similar) and when should you jump on a platform like Udemy? - What methods we use for content strategy. - And a whole crap ton more! This is an exciting couple episodes to me because I've lived this course creation stuff for the past few years, figuring out some processes that have been enormously helpful for us (and hopefully will be for you as well). Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/108 - In the last episode we covered 10 growth channels to explore. In this episode we cover 9 more channels you can leverage to attract more people to your business. We're adding our experience and advice to the list of 19 channels mentioned in the great book Traction. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/107 - In this conversation we present 10 growth channels to grow your small business, adding our honest commentary on each one. We also walk you through a growth model we've adopted that's helped how we brainstorm, plan for and execute our growth strategy for Fizzle. Enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/106 - In the last 6 episodes we revealed the 6 stage small business roadmap. A stage by stage, step by step, 10,000 foot view of building a business. They weren’t the 6 stages your business *will* go through automatically. They were the 6 stages you *want* to go through so that you and your idea are best setup for success as you define it. The roadmap was immensely well received (you'll find links to each episode below) and in this episode we cover two things: 1. We answer the 4 common questions we heard from your comments. 2. We reveal 4 updates we made to the roadmap based on your feedback. Take a listen to the episode, subscribe in itunes if you haven't and enjoy!

http://fizzleshow.co/105 - In the sixth small business roadmap stage we explore the final question: how can we grow this business beyond ourselves and into greater impact in the world and wealth in the company? We dig into the 11 steps of Scale where the goal is to hone, discover and experiment towards a more scalable and sustainable business. To put it simply, this stage is about shifting from clawing out growth one handful at a time, to a business with one of those magical hockey stick growth charts. We also finish out this episode with reflections on key takeaways and what we learned in talking through this whole roadmap. Enjoy! (PS: If you're not already, subscribe in itunes so you can get the next episode in your sleep.)

http://fizzleshow.co/104 - Now, in stage 5 of the small business roadmap, it's time to get into the nitty gritty: can this business idea of yours actually make enough money to support you in a meaningful way? This is a stage most of us are not well prepared for, typically diving in without any knowledge of the metrics, the movements or the models. That's what we break down for you into 7 steps in this conversation, taking you from "I made a dollar," to your Freedom Number™ (the amount of money you need to make your full time living from your business). You could have access to the best investors and the brightest business minds in the world. They *still* couldn't tell you if your idea's going to work with certainty. This money step is where the checks, balances and bounces prove your idea has heart enough to live on it's own or if it needs some more tweaking. Enjoy the conversation! (PS: If you're not already, subscribe in itunes so you can get the next episode like direct deposits.)

http://fizzleshow.co/103 - Stage 4, the Build stage, is a big one. As Corbett puts it: "this stage is a monster and a lot of people get stuck here." In this episode we talk you through each step so you can rise up when others start to sink. There's a lot of fun stuff here — naming, website building, social media accounts. That stuff is exciting even when it gets challenging. But built into the 9 steps of Build is also some difficult tasks that won't happen over night. Listen to this episode to get into the mindset of the big picture, avoiding the hamster wheel of building an audience forever without ever finding a way to earn a living with that audience. Enjoy! (If you're not already, subscribe in itunes so you can get the next episode in your sleep.)

http://fizzleshow.co/102 - Stage 3 of the small business roadmap is one of my favorites. In fact, it's the stage most of us *start* with even though skipping over stage 1 and stage 2 can be deadly to your idea. And as we dive right in here, many of us naturally resist doing some of the most eye-opening parts of this stage. (We get into what those parts are and how to do them in this episode.) The cost of skipping over these parts is a plan that's *too* rigid and *too* isolated from the world of your customer. (Which is why our planning stage culminates in what we call a Business Sketch Template.) This is one of my favorite stages because it's where so many insights happen. Where do those insights come from? Your customers (even though they're just *potential* customers at this time). There are 5 steps to the Plan stage and in this conversation we'll walk you through each one with plenty of stories and explanations to get these ideas embedded in your process. (If you're not already, subscribe in itunes so you can get the next episode in your sleep.)